- Ecuador: Prosecutor killed in latest attack on regime officials
Source: United Press International
“Ecuador’s Attorney General’s Office said a new attack targeting justice officials left a prosecutor dead in the port city of Manta. Veteran criminal prosecutor Alexandra Bravo and her sister, Olinda Bravo, were shot and killed in broad daylight Sunday, raising renewed concerns about the security risks faced by judges and prosecutors in a country operating under a state-declared ‘internal armed conflict’ against powerful drug trafficking organizations. Authorities said the attack occurred as the sisters were leaving a restaurant and walking toward their parked vehicle. A gunman approached them and fired multiple shots at close range. Both women died at the scene, while the attacker escaped.” (06/15/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/06/15/latam-ecuador-prosecutor-lkilled/5591781540127/
- SCOTUS declines former Trump aide’s lawsuit over surveillance
Source: CBS News
“The Supreme Court on Monday turned away ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page’s attempt to revive a lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and other senior FBI officials over surveillance warrants obtained by the bureau during its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The Supreme Court’s denial of the case came after the Trump administration said in April it had reached a $1.25 million settlement with Page. He had appealed a lower court decision dismissing his lawsuit against the Justice Department, FBI and eight named individuals, including Comey. The Justice Department’s settlement involved only Page’s claims against the U.S. government, not the individual FBI officials.” (06/15/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-trump-campaign-aide-carter-page-jim-comey/
- Trump’s Iran Deal Is a Humiliation for Him — and Good News for the World
Source: The Nation
by Jeet Heer“The attack on Iran that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched in February has disrupted the global economy, sending oil prices spiking, while utterly failing in its stated objective of regime change. Voters widely, and accurately, view the war as an unmitigated disaster. … Trump launched a foolish and unnecessary war, which the United States has lost decisively. The war proves the US and Israel have limited ability to restrain Iran. So the only alternative is negotiation.” (06/15/26)
- A Requiem for Privacy
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“Before 9/11, no one in law enforcement was permitted access to data obtained outside the restraints imposed by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Those restraints prohibit searches and seizures — in the modern parlance, surveillance and data acquisition — without a search warrant issued by a judge based on probable cause of crime, sworn to under oath. And the warrant itself must specifically describe the places to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. Since 9/11, the wall between surveillance and law enforcement has collapsed even though the feds still maintain that the Fourth Amendment only regulates law enforcement and not surveillance. This wild proposition is defied by the plain language of the amendment, which protects all persons from all government, and by the history of the colonists dealing with British government agents executing general warrants issued by a secret court in London.” (06/15/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/06/14/a-requiem-for-privacy
- Tobacco policy should reflect the world as it is
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Caleb O Brown & Jeffrey A Singer“If reports are correct that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary resigned under pressure from the White House to approve flavored nicotine vaping products, the episode says a great deal about the state of American tobacco policy. Cigarettes remain legal, ubiquitous, and extraordinarily deadly. Yet smoke-free alternatives that may help adults move away from combustible tobacco continue to trigger political panic out of proportion to the actual public health trade-offs involved. There is something deeply unserious about how Washington talks about nicotine. Cigarettes, the most dangerous products in the category, remain widely available. Smoke-free alternatives, however, are often treated as if their very existence is beyond the pale.” (06/15/26)
- When Money Has an Off Switch, So Does Your Freedom
Source: Cato Institute
by Norbert J Michel“True liberty cannot exist without economic and financial autonomy. Every individual, regardless of their background, must have the right to protect their wealth. They must have the right to access open markets by transacting freely, without the shadow of state corporatism or financial surveillance. Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are a direct threat to these rights. They are money that can be programmed by the government. They can be turned off completely or just for spending on items the state disapproves of. They are a surveillance-punishment system dressed in the language of financial innovation.” (06/15/26)
https://www.cato.org/blog/when-money-has-switch-so-does-freedom
- Congress’s Failure is Liberty’s Gain
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“The only way to protect the American people’s liberty is to dismantle the surveillance state and stop trading real liberty for phantom security. True security comes from replacing militarism and authoritarianism with liberty and peace.” (06/15/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/congresss-failure-is-libertys-gain
- The Art of the Non-Deal
Source: Persuasion
by Francis Fukuyama“So Donald Trump, on his 80th birthday, announced a deal in which there would be a 60-day ceasefire. Precise details have not yet been officially published. But, according to reports, they apparently include a cessation of attacks in Lebanon, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz … and lifting the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports. He touted this as a key win, in the process praising China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin for helping secure it. This ‘deal’ was nothing of the sort. If the reports are accurate, it instead represented a total U.S. capitulation to Iran. It basically set the clock back to February, when the Strait was open and the United States and Israel had not yet started bombing the Islamic Republic. It merely solved a problem that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had themselves created by launching the war in the first place.” (06/15/25)
- Trump is stealing Americans’ faith in elections
Source: Seattle Times
by Jackie Calmes“Trump’s Big Lie about rigged elections and Democrats’ supposed cheating — California being his latest target — is by now so familiar that many of us are all but inured to it, and have been for a long time. That’s understandable, and arguably good for our mental health, but collectively dangerous for the nation. The majority of Republican voters accept the lie as truth. What better time than the summer of the nation’s 250th anniversary of independence to reflect on how Trump’s years of lying have corroded the citizenry’s essential belief in the integrity of elections? Attention must be paid, especially ahead of midterm elections in November.” (06/15/26)
- Taxing Away Success
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Mark Moses“We are witnessing a troubling migration — a flight of capital and talent from states that have adopted increasingly aggressive tax policies. Elon Musk moved Tesla and X from California to Texas; Palantir relocated to Colorado. High-profile individuals and corporations are pulling up stakes and relocating to states with more favorable tax policies. A casual observer might interpret such migrations as a strategic response to changing cost structures. But that framing misses the deeper issue. These departures are not just about lowering costs; they reflect an effort to exit a system that has decidedly turned against them.” (06/15/26)
- The World’s First Trillionaire Is Not Your Friend
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“It’s so pathetic watching Elon Musk’s groveling bootlickers fall all over themselves on social media to defend their favorite oligarch from criticism as he becomes the world’s first trillionaire. They’re like ‘Don’t be mean to the trillionaire, just become a trillionaire yourself! All you need is luck, connections, wealthy parents, the ruthlessness to step on anyone who gets in your way, and a willingness to cooperate with murderous imperial institutions like the Pentagon and the CIA!’ Elon Musk is a military-industrial complex plutocrat who is balls deep in the US intelligence cartel and recently facilitated the US-Israeli attempted regime change operation in Iran. You have infinitely more in common with the average person in Iran, Cuba, Lebanon or Palestine than you have with the world’s first trillionaire.” (06/14/26)
- What the Trillionaire Can’t Do
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“Mr. Musk’s wealth is in the company that just took on new investors, driving up his shares. If he started selling his shares, the value of the stock would plummet before he found enough buyers. It is Mr. Musk’s managerial genius and technological vision that is responsible for the company’s success, so any step back from control — even by relinquishing stock — would almost certainly spell disaster. And if he vanished off the face of the Earth, our global civilization would feel it. What Elon Musk’s envious haters do not seem to understand is that Musk succeeds by developing products that people, businesses, and governments are willing to pay big bucks for.” (06/15/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/06/15/what-the-trillionaire-cant-do/
- Reason Roundtable, 06/15/26
Source: Reason
“Bernie Sanders Is Wrong About Trillionaires.” (06/15/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/06/15/bernie-sanders-is-wrong-about-trillionaires/
- LPALive, episode 75
Source: LP Alliance
“Get a courtside view as the GOP challenges Iowa Libertarian contenders in a desperate attempt to hold on to their House majority in the Hawkeye State!” (06/15/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 06/15/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“‘Peace Deal’ With Iran And Cage Match At White House: What A Time To Be Alive!” (06/15/26)